CHICAGO—Buildings in the relatively small Elgin/I-90 Corridor industrial submarket generally do not attract as much notice as those in the denser submarkets like O'Hare or the I-55 Corridor. But after searching for about one year, officials from DCT Industrial Trust Inc. have decided to greatly expand their Chicago-area portfolio by purchasing a six-building industrial portfolio with about 1.1-million-square-feet at the Fox River Business Center in Elgin.

“It was eye-opening for us,” says Brian Roach, regional vice president, Chicago for DCT, of their study of the submarket around Elgin. Over the years, it had levels of absorption and general health comparable to the much larger markets in the metro area. DCT now has a Chicago-area industrial portfolio of about 8.9-million-square-feet, but this was their first purchase in the Elgin area.

And although DCT's new acquisition has an occupancy rate of 59.1%, Roach says it will make a great value-add project. The center was fully-occupied up until the recession, he points out, and DCT has the capital to launch what he calls a significant improvement program. The company will redo the landscaping, interiors and other aspects. “It's not just painting the buildings.” The goal, he adds, is to get the vacancies ready so a prospective tenant will look in and say “'I can move in here in 30 days.”

The center's buildings range from 73,000-square-feet to 431,000-square-feet, and offer a wide variety of spaces that Roach believes will meet the demand DCT sees coming from distributors, manufacturers and others.

DCT Industrial was represented in the Fox River acquisition by Noel Liston, principal at Darwin Realty & Development, who will continue to act as listing agent for the vacant facilities.

As of June 30, 2013, DCT Industrial owned interests in about 74.9-million-square-feet of properties, and Roach says the Chicago area's continued low vacancy rate and limited amount of speculative construction will continue to attract the company's interest. “I think we feel pretty good about Chicago, and we're attempting to grow the square-footage significantly.”